Bracknell Forest has not ruled out abandoning fortnightly collections, but fears this will lead to a spiralling increase in costs that will not be covered by the handout

A council boss says he will need “a lot of convincing” to return to weekly bin collections, despite an offer of financial help from the Government.

Bracknell Forest has not ruled out abandoning fortnightly collections, but fears this will lead to a spiralling increase in costs that will not be covered by the handout.

Local government minister Eric Pickles announced last week that the Government had put aside £250million to help councils go back to a weekly system.

To receive any of the money, councils must sign up for a minimum of five years.

Council leader Paul Bettison said a lot of the costs associated with weekly collections needed to be clarified before councillors could make a decision.

“It's not something we can rule out, but I’d need a lot of convincing if we were to return to a weekly collection,” he added.

“There are around 350 councils running a fortnightly collection. If they were to all sign up, and if it was done equally, that works out as less than £1million each.

“More maths says if we are going to do it weekly we’ll need another four refuse lorries and around 32 more staff. Our officers will sit down and look at whether it can be done, but I’m not convinced yet.

“The other issue we have to consider is that our statistics suggest people may not be able to organise themselves into a weekly collection, which results in an increase in landfill and an increase in landfill fines.”

Cllr Bettison, a leading member of the Local Government Association (LGA), added that LGA research indicated it would cost around £11billion for councils around the country to revert to the weekly collections.

Mr Pickles said the Government money could be used to improve services, such as buying new machinery for council recycling centres, or for offering people incentives to recycle more.

His initiative prompted concern from John Halladay, of Bracknell Friends of the Earth. “Our evidence suggests recycling levels have increased in areas where councils have introduced fortnightly collections.”

A council spokeswoman said the authority had received “very few” complaints about the fortnightly bin service since its introduction in 2006.